Yes it was wonderful day and the sun shone throughout. I would best describe it as "organised chaos" and that is meant in the nicest possible way. FETAV did a brilliant job and with several thousand children on the square throughout the afternoon, many accompanied by their parents, it was manic and you can only imagine the noise. Lots of children performed readings, poems and dances, many wearing national costume and fancy dress, whilst others rushed around collecting their free gifts from the various stalls.
On the 3C's stand we were lucky to have been loaned a generator and compressor which is just as well as we gave out 1000 balloons as well as wrapped gifts of bubbles, whistles, blowers, pencil cases and stationary items as well as several kilos of sweets.
Our youngsters from Izzetinkoy village school, who we paid to have bussed down for the festivities, had a wonderful time. They were kindly met at Calis boat office on behalf of the 3C's by Yaser and Arzu from the new English Learning Centre who then accompanied them and their teachers on an enjoyable boat trip around the bay, taking in the new duck island and Sovaliye island on the way (as well as some dancing on the boat), before bringing them to the 3C's stand where the children all received special presents. Afterwards they went off to play in the park before starting the 50km journey back to their village.
Here are some of our pictures to start off with (unfortunately we were too busy on the stand to take pictures of the other activities going on) but I am sure Nichola will have some lovely ones when she has sorted out her album
Hard at work on the 3C's stand
One of the activities
The children from Izzetinkoy arrive at the square (Yaser and Arzu (top right)
The children queue to receive their gifts and sweets
Does the young girl in the centre of the photo look familiar? - she is our cute calendar girl from this years 3Cs calendar (see back page for those who have them).